YANMAR DIESELS CHOSEN FOR CONCEPT SAILBOAT

An innovative steel-hulled sailboat being designed to generate sustainable energy and maximise automation to give autonomy at sea will have auxiliary power and heating from a pair of Yanmar diesels. The 25-metre, 60-tonne craft is to be called Ecolution and will be built by new venture Ecolutions in the Dutch city of Groningen. It is being led by former Challenger space shuttle astronaut Wubbo Ockels, now a professor at Delft Technology University, and involves shipyards No Limit Ships and Marvis. Ockels describes it as a dream come true. He said: “People would love to sail around the world but worry about energy supply, comfort and safety. Ecolution will be the answer because of its philosophy of self-generating power, its spaciousness and the totally new technology for safe boat handling. We intend to build several boats to serve what we see as a new market niche.”
Within just a few days of sailing, the boat can create and store enough energy in its battery pack for a month of comfortable living on board. A software management system will advise on sail settings, predict power use and storage requirements, and monitor onboard systems and environmental changes. It is being integrated with multi-functional navigation. Mooring will be facilitated by position and directional control, using two propellers, two rudders and a bow thruster. All operations can be performed single-handedly via a one-button device.
Ecolution's system architecture mimics the space shuttle in that it is fully redundant and its safety is tolerant to two failures.

“The concept of sustainable energy matches completely with Yanmar’s mission of producing power efficiently and in a careful, considerate manner,” said Geert Jan Mantel, president of Yanmar Marine. “We are pleased to have been chosen to supply the engines and are confident that the Ecolution project will be a great success.”
Final decisions on the size of engines have not been made yet, but they will be Yanmar JH-Series diesels, which go up to 125MPH (92kW).